Quitting Time

Looking west over the mine in the distance from the parking lot of the man camp.

Nouakchott International

We're not in Kansas anymore....and I'm not working around raindrops either :)

Times are Tough

Unusual visitor to the suet baskets...

Times must be hard to find a mockingbird on the suet.  There are a few hardy pairs around the open, less wooded areas in front of the house that stay year round.  When it snows, or toward the end of a winter, they will come to the back yard when the readily available food supplies run a bit low.

Sparky the (Un)Lucky Squirrel

I noticed something a bit different the other day with our 25kW transformer outside the house.

On closer inspection it seems one of our resident gray squirrels contacted one of the hot legs and the grounded leg.  This isn't the first time but usually there is a loud "pop" and all you find is some scorched fur around the base of the pole.  Since Lucky got caught up on the low voltage side he's basically "stuck" for now.  Hopefully he falls off soon before one of our hawks or owls gets involved (crows should feel free to try and get a piece).

A Different Kind of Mac Pro

The littlest princess is all set to give the opening arguments for the prosecution today in Mock Trial competition.

She's got her game face on :)

Hustle and Bustle

A short clip of the feeder....

Always one in the crowd...

While most of the daffodils are primed and ready for their spring bloom, usually early to mid February since we've lived here, there is one bunch that is getting a head start on the others.  Looks like they wanted to show off a bit :)

Pretty in Pink

After a recent storm I found some pink insulation on the deck outside---weird as I know that the attic vents have screening on them to prevent this regardless of how much wind we have.  We also have fiberglass batting and not the loose, blown in type of insulation.

 

Closer inspection at the very peak of the house shows a bit of the pink stuff laying across one of the attic vents.....a long way up there!

Hanging the camera out the window in my office (aka bonus room) shows that we've had uninvited company---and some attic work to do before it warms up.  Appears that our friendly neighborhood squirrels needed to insulate their nests for their soon to arrive kids (oh joy).

Bustling up to the feeder

Our usual morning rush hour crowd at the feeder.

The male gold finches are beginning to turn "gold" to impress the ladies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Goldfinch

Illuminating Fan-tastic Repair

 We've had some on and off (literally) problems with the light fixture on the ceiling fan in the kitchen.  Bulbs would work, then stop and restart for no reason.

Close inspection showed that the ceramic lampholders looked heated---it's been here for 20 years but I was still surprised as we've only put 40 or 60 watt lamps in it.

Once the fixture was disassembled, 4 of the 5 lampholders were really, really bad.....and the 5th wasn't far behind.

The worst lampholder had wiring with burned off insulation.

All bright and shiny now :)  Will monitor the temperature as I suspect the heating may be with dimmer switch.

Getting ready for warmer weather

Most people rake leaves in their yard.  With all the trees on our property I've tried different ways to remove the leaves from the pool cover before taking the cover off.  This year's method looks very promising and relatively less labor intensive from previous years.

Time to upgrade....

In the good old days, hard drives either gave the death rattle right before they bit the dust (which preceeded rapid floppy disk backing up) or just failed altogether with no notice.  The new drives, paired with the operating system, now have the audacity to tell you they don't want to work anymore.  This hard drive is named Apollo and is installed on my desktop and has been online continuously for over 3 years.  He is imaged and backed up on Cronus which I'll probably be using soon to create a new C: drive.

Writing Style

Our youngest (and cutest) cat staying warm and cozy....



And occasionally Skyping me using Moyia's username.  I can usually make out the subtle difference in her writing style and Moyia's---though I'm not always sure especially when she gets a lot of X's and O's involved.  I'm just glad she's not a big fan of iPhones :)

Let it snow!

Christmas Day afternoon we started with a light rain mixed with sleet which progressed to a light snow whipped by fairly strong winds.  The 5-9" blizzard forecast for the area did not appear but we did get 2-3" of the white stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

Scenes from a Christmas Morning

As usual, Alex guards the presents in the early AM before his sisters arrive on the scene.  He actually is scoping out name tags and planning a strategy to maximize his present opening.

The butter braids have been rising all night---Strawberry Cream Cheese was on the menu this year.

And of course the little woman has a breakfast casserole in hand waiting to cook along with the braids.

Meanwhile, back at Central Command, the girls have arrived.  Alex shares his strategy with the triumvirate.

The fun begins!  First Blood (virtually speaking) is Call of Duty.

The better looking half of the upcoming empty nesters has scored a Sony DSLR.

The Littlest Princess is now the proud owner of her first UM sweats.

And she dons the apparel quickly to show her school spirit.

A bit later in the day Madison, one of the Seniors from MTSU (and soon to be Florida resident and son-in-law), dropped by to open a few gifts with the other soon-to-be MTSU grad Brianna.

Santa has time to play...

15 second exposure/ISO 80/

1/4 second exposure/ISO 400

In years past, Santa had just gone to bed after a long night of delivering and assembling toys along with the usual cookie eating.  Nowadays, Santa has more leisure time and can play with getting that just right shot of the Christmas tree before all mayhem lets loose---some things never change :)

Cookie Decorating Time!!!

The BAM Crew had reinforcements this year----Grandma came up to help!!!

The team working the designs under scrutiny of the cameras.

Alex has really upped his game this year....must be all that bachelor living at college.

The littlest princess taking care of a casualty.....obviously a strong Walking Dead influence here.

Brianna was at her Christmas creative best as always.....

And the results are in...some of the most colorful and creative cookies to date!!!